December 14, 2019 Homepage Archive

2019 Foot Locker XC Full Results Race Replay LRC FL PreviewClub Nats Saturday As Well *Club Nats Results

LRC Josh Methner Dominates, Poland’s Zofia Dudek (16:45) Wins Thrilling Battle With Marlee Starliper To Claim 2019 Foot Locker Titles The girls race was a classic as four girls entered the final hill together. In the end, Zofia Dudek came from behind to win with the 5th-fastest time in history.

Foot Locker MB Discussion

Club Nats
Women: Aisling Cuffe (20:07 for 6k) And Hoka Aggies Win Titles 3-time NXN champ Katelyn Tuohy was 2nd and Mary Cainwas 33rd, exactly one minute back of Tuohy.
Men:Triathlete Morgan Pearson Spanks Field At Club Nats, So Does Tinman Elite
*MB: USATF Club Cross Country Championships at Lehigh thread

Zatopek 10,000m *Results

Stewart McSweyn Runs 27:23.80 To Break Australian 10,000m Record At Zatopek 10,000m Former NCAA XC champ Patrick Tiernan was runner-up with 27:31.20. Genevieve Gregson (formerly LaCaze) won the women’s race in 32:47.83.

Important Doping News

French Marathoner Clemence Calvin, Who Got Court Order Lifting Drug Suspension So She Could Run A 2:23 NR In Paris, Is Actually Banned For 4 Years Days before this year’s Paris marathon, she got a court order lifting her suspension for refusing a drug test in Morocco as she said the testers impersonated police officers. The ban was recently upheld but she called the recent hearing a “masquerade” and is appealing.
Russian News Agency Admits 88 Track Athletes And 9 Coaches Are Currently Banned For Doping That’s very high since roughly only 500 are in the testing pool.

Sprint News Of Note

Yohan Blake States The Obvious To Indian Press – Usain Bolt Overshadowed My Career & Without Him I’d Be The World’s Fastest Man That’s true as his 19.26 was incredible. He also complains that Glen Mills rarely let him race Bolt.
Back From Illness And Injury, Kirani James Looks Ahead To 2020 With Optimism He seems to have Graves disease under control and is optimistic he can win a third Olympic medal in 2020 after finishing 5th at Worlds this year.

Distance News

Defending Champions Dominate At Southeast Asian Games Vietnam’s Duong Van Thai completed the 800/1,500 double for the 2nd straight champs.
Edward Cheserek And Sharon Lokedi Get Engaged The 17-time NCAA champ and the 1-time champ are set to be hitched as King Ches proposed to Queen Ches in Hawaii.
Turkey’s Kaan Kigen Özbilen Shares The Keys To His 2:04:16 ER – “The majority of this comes from genetics.” Training with Eliud Kipchoge probably doesn’t hurt either.
Good ReadNot Everyone Wearing Vaporflys Qualified At CIM On Trying Aand Failing) To OTQ At CIM
Eliud Kipchoge Was The #2 Personality Searched For On Google In Kenya In 2019 The #1 spot went to Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore while the INEOS 159 event was the 9th most searched for event.
US Ambassador Visits Kipchoge And Goes For A Run With Him
*MB: Kyle McCarter, US Ambassador fo Kenya, runs with Eliud Kipchoge. What are his PRs?
Olympian Nicole Sifuentes Talks About The Key Of Learning To Train By Effort Instead Of Being A Slave To Technology Or A Prescribed Workout “Before you head out that door, think about the purpose of your run. If I was running so slowly and still felt tired, I would slow down or cut my run short. If I felt amazing and it was a hard workout day, I would push my limits.”
Japanese Authorities Will Now Start Testing At HS National Champs For … Iron Injections
Looking For A Unique Christmas Gift? Buy This Classic 1965 Steeple Photo For £55
Reporter Who Was Grabbed On Butt During Road Race Files Police Charges And Appears On National TV Meanwhile, the groper is trying to apologize in person.
Runner Who Slapped Reporter’s Butt During Savannah Bridge Run Is Banned From Future Races
Why Every Runner Needs Trail Shoes For Winter

Sprint / Field News

10.39/20.46/45.23 Prep Tyrese Cooper Will Start His Career At Hinds Community College And Not Oregon Where He Signed His HS coach said this, “I honestly have no idea why he is no longer at Oregon.”
Kiwi Pole Vault Star Eliza McCartney Reveals She May “… have a genetic disorder that causes autoimmune inflammation, particularly affecting tendons.”
Pole Vault Mat Flies Into Stands, Seriously Injures Two In Stands In Wellington, New Zealand

Doping News: WADA Drops The Ban Hammer On Russia

Russia Gets Four Year Ban – Will Miss 2020 Olympics And 2022 World Cup The ban has been handed down by WADA and RUSADA still has 21 days to appeal. And as it was previously, Russian athletes who can prove they are clean can compete as neutral athletes.

The Telegraph:Russia Escapes Complete Sporting Exile Despite WADA’s 4-Year Ban With exceptions for neutral athletes and certain events that don’t fall under WADA’s jurisdiction, many, including Travis Tygart and WADA vice president Linda Hellelan are saying that this 4-year ban is too lenient.
*The Telegraph: Doubts Raised Over Credibility Of WADA’s Sanctions Russia will still be able to compete in the European soccer championships and while they can’t play in the World Cup, they can play in their home qualifiers as Russia and in Russia.
Travis Tygart Says Witnesses In Alberto Salazar Case Had “Death Threats Not To Testify” Tygart talks about possibly going after a longer ban for Salazar, calls Paula Radcliffe‘s comments “nonsensical” and touches on Russia and Lance Armstrong.
WADA Vice President Linda Helleland:“I’m not happy with the decision we made today. But this is as far as we could go.”
NY Times:Russia Banned From Olympics and Global Sports for 4 Years Over Doping
Russian Fencing Federation President Tells Craig Reedie Not To Turn Fight Against Doping Into A “Lynching”
NY Times Article Last Week: “Russian Doping Blurs Innocence And Guilt, With Olympics Caught In Middle”

Euro XC Champs ResultsRace Replays

Sweden’s Robel Fsiha Defeats The Favorites To Win Euro XC Champs Fsiha beat out Turkeys Aras Kaya by 11 seconds as well as Julien Wanders (4th), Andrew Butchart (5th) and defending champ Filip Ingebrigsten (12th).
Turkey’s Yasemin Can Wins Her Fourth Consecutive Euro XC Title She won the race by 15 seconds ahead of Norway’s Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen Cruises To His Fourth Euro XC U20 Title He won the race by a record margin 38-seconds ahead of second place. Italy’s Nadia Battocletti won the women’s U20 race.
GB Win Five Team Gold Medals, Including Men’s And Women’s Senior Races At Euro XC Champs In the men’s race they nipped Belgium by just 2 points while the women beat out Ireland by 15 points. *BBC Article
Fionnuala McCormack’s Fourth-Place Finish Leads Ireland Women To Team Silver *BBC article
France’s Jimmy Gressier Wins His Third Straight U23 Title; Denmark’s Anna Emilie Moller Defends Her U23 Title

Russian Doping News

Chair Of The British Athletes Commission Quits WADA Over Refusal To Ban Russia From All Sport Victoria Aggar: “I simply can no longer be a part of an organisation that places politics over principle.”
AP:WADA Committee Chairman Defends Partial Russian Ban Jonathan Taylor: “We have to be careful as well, because those who say it should be blanket ban … it’ll be thrown out in court. We have to focus on what happened in 2018 and ’19. That was the cover-up of the cover-up of the original doping.”
WADA Director General Olivier Niggli Admits There Is A “Great Polarization Of Athlete Views” On Russia
Reuters:Russian Track Athletes Could Still Be At Tokyo 2020 As Neutrals

Will World Athletics Act?

Updated NY Times Study Shows Next Vaporflys Are Even Better Than They Thought An analysis of more than 1 million results on Stava show that “in a race between two marathoners of the same ability, a runner wearing these shoes would have a significant advantage [2=3%] over a competitor not wearing them.”
*MB: NYT: Vaporfly gives “bigger advantage than we thought”

The Irish Times’ “Global Sports Star Of 2019”: Vaporfly

Sunday Road Action

2012 Olympic 10,000m Bronze Medalist Tariku Bekele Headlines Kolkata 25k He faces Kenya’s 2017 World Cross-Country silver medalist Leonard Barsoton and US’s Stanley Kebenei. Ethiopia’s Birke Debele (2:23:19 marathon PR) leads the women’s race.
Kenya’s Rebecca Chesir (2:24:25) And Ethiopia’s Muluhabt Tsega (2:25:48) Lead Field For The Shenzhen Marathon Ethiopia’s Bekele Muluneh (2:11:19) leads the men’s race.

Seb Coe Talks And We Listen

LRC Sebastian Coe Shares His Vision For The Future, Explains Diamond League Cuts, & Says Track & Field Has “A Lot Of Work To Do” In The US Last month, Seb Coe spent 45 minutes discussing the Diamond League and his vision for the sport with LetsRun.com. Find out what he said here.
*TFN’s Garry Hill: Thoughts On The Diamond League Contraction Hill is for change but thinks if 4 events are going to be cut they should rotate the events.

Better Running Shoes

LRCThe 10 Most Popular Running Shoes On LetsRun.com Before we do our final call of shoe reviews in 2019, we decided to take a look at what shoes are the most popluar on LetsRun. Four shoe lines dominant, the Nike Pegasus, the Brooks Ghost, the HOKA Clifton and the Saucony Kinvara. These four might be a great place to start when looking for a new pair of shoes.

US News Mainly From Oregon

Hundreds Of Nike Employees Stage Walk To Protest As Nike’s Alberto Salazar Building Is Re-Opened After Renovations It appears many want his name stripped from the building. Some held signs saying, “We believe Mary.” *NY Times *WSJ
*MB: “Hundreds” of Nike employees walk out to protest re-opening of Salazar Building
Oregon Officials Continue Hunt For $20 Million Needed To Fulfill Their $40 Million Commitment To 2021 Worlds The event’s budget is $80 million and the state promised $40 million but so far only has $20 million. $14 million comes from tickets, $10 million comes from USATF and $5.3 million from World Athletics and its partners.
It Must Be The Shoes Even Honolulu Marathon President Can’t Believe Someone Just Ran 2:08:00 On The Course “Who ever thought we’d see times like this here?”
Spire Institute And Track In Ohio Is Sold To Baltimore Investment Firm The owner claimed to have invested $100 million into the project, which supposedly is losing a million a year, but it sold for something close to just $11 million.
100-Mile World Record Holder Zach Bitter Goes On Joe Rogan Podcast To Talk About His Sometimes Carnivore Diet He says he doesn’t eat only animal products all the time, just sometimes.

Weekend Road Action

Pacemaker Reuben Kipyego Wins Abu Dhabi Marathon In PR Of 2:04:40 To Take Home $100,000 Prize Purse Kipyego was actually third-fastest in the field with a 2:05:18 pre-race PR, so the performance wasn’t a total shock. Vivian Kiplagat won the women’s race in 2:21:11.
RRW:Kenya’s Titus Ekiru Defends His Title And Runs Fastest-Ever Marathon In Hawaii With 2:07:59 Victory At The Honolulu Marathon Margaret Muriuki won the women’s race in 2:31:10 over Betsy Saina (2:31:51).
*Pre-Race: RRW: “Comeback Queen” Renee Metivier Eyes Olympic Marathon Trials Standard At 2019 Honolulu Marathon She ended up qualifying for the Trials with 2:43:18.
RRW:Three-Peat For Edward Cheserek At Kalakaua Merrie Mile Cheserek’s winning time of 3:53.3 was the fastest mile ever run in Hawaii. Cheserek also won the men vs. women race (women get a 28-second head start). The battle for second overall was fierce with Kenya’s Brimin Kiprono (3:56.3), finishing .7 ahead of top woman Elinor Purrier (4:25.0).
Kenyans Elisha Barno (2:13:36) And Jane Kibii (2:29:31) Win Rainy CIM Marathon Top Americans were CJ Albertson in 2nd with 2:13:40 and 41-year-old Meriah Earle, who PRed by more than 10-minutes to get 3rd in 2:34:35. *Results
Ethiopians Gebretsadik Abraha (2:08:04) Hiwot Gebrekidan (2:23:50) Win At The Guangzhou Marathon
65:06 Half Marathoner Peres Jepchirchir Ran Her First Marathon Outside Of Kenya To Win The Saitama Marathon In 2:23:50
Japan’s Ririka Hironaka Breaks National U20 5,000m Record With 15:05.40
Haruka Yamaguchi Wins Nara Marathon In Japan In 2:33:22

NCAA News

Voting Now Open – 64 Races … 32 Remain … 1 Champion

LRC Race Of The Decade, First Round Recap: Kenenisa Bekele’s 2019 Berlin Win Defeats Yuki Kawauchi’s 2018 Boston Win In Controversial Fashion, Plus Des Linden Takes Down Shalane Flanagan The first round of December Madness – LetsRun.com’s 64-race battle for RACE OF THE DECADE – is in the books and the action was spectacular. The matchup between the GOAT – Kenenisa Bekele and his win in Berlin in 2019 – and the people’s champ in Yuki Kawauchi and his 2018 Boston win is a battle that track and field fans will be talking about for decades as it featured a controversial finish and was decided by a single vote. In another instant classic, Des Linden‘s 2018 Boston victory knocked off Shalane Flanagan and her 2017 NYC win.

LRC What Was The Race Of The Decade? Round Of 32 Voting Now Open Some of the 2nd round matchups are salivating. Which was a better race – Kenenisa Bekele‘s Great North Run win in 2013 or his 2:01:41 2019 Berlin Marathon shocker? What about Mo Farah and Galen Rupp going 1-2 in the Olympics versus Emma Coburn and Courtney Frerichs going 1-2 at Worlds? How does this year’s historic women’s 1,500 final at Worlds compare to the 2016 Olympics men’s 1,500 final? Or what about the 2019 world’s women’s 400 vs. the 2016 Olympic women’s 400?

Links That We Found Interesting

Hmm … They Advertised On LRC And Then Sales Took Off Strava’s 2019 Data Reveals The Fastest-Growing Shoe Is HOKA Carbon X, Not Nike Vaporfly Or NEXT% The Hoka Carbon X gets great reviews on the LRC shoe site as does the Next%. Those links will take you to them and also shows you the best prices.
Meet Andrew Davies, Who Set The British 40+ Marathon Record In Valencia At 2:14:38 He PRed in the 11th marathon of his career at age 40 and no, he wasn’t wearing the Next%s. He was wearing a New Balance prototype.
*MB:Guy wearing New Balance’s prototype – not Next% or Vaporflys – smashes British 40+ marathon record
Inspiring Read 2008 Olympic 800 Champ Wilfred Bungei Talks About His Battle With Alcoholism And Hopes He Will Inspire Others Bungei admits to driving drunk with his kids in the car and being so drunk he missed the birth of a child as he was found near death in a ditch. However, after entering rehab in 2012, he hasn’t had a drink in 7 months.
Olympic Dreams Of Orthodox Jewish “Marathon Mother” Beatie Deutsch Take A Hit As 2020 Marathon Is Rescheduled For Sabbath Three years ago, she was a non-runner. Now the mother of 5, who makes her own racing skirts out of men’s dri-fit shorts, is an Olympic hopeful with a 2:36 PR.
*Paralympic Marathons To Stay In Tokyo For 2020 Games
World Athletics Takes A Look At The Rise Of African Road Races Want to run a marathon in Zambia? You can now and the President and 1st Lady might be running next to you.
What To Do If You Have (Or Notice) An Abusive Coach? Here’s How You Can Report Them To The SafeSport Helpline
Spokane’s $42 Million Indoor Sports Complex And Hydraulic Banked Track Will Look Spectacular The design video is pretty darn cool but will it really generate 26-46,000 hotel stays a year? That would be great if it does. *Spokanesportsplex.org
Nike Hypocrite: Ultrarunner Robbie Britton Doesn’t Like Nike But He’s Not An Idiot And Bought Their Next% Shoes
Shalane Flanagan Uses PRP (Platelet-Rich Plasma) Injections, But Does It Even Work?

Our Weekly Recap

WTW:Katelyn Tuohy Three-Peats, Pacemaker Wins Abu Dhabi, Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifiers Galore Katelyn Tuohy won her 3rd-straight NXN title. What does that mean for her future success? Plus a pacemaker won $100,000 in Abu Dhabi and there were a TON of Olympic Trials qualifiers at CIM.

Vaporfly / Russian Doping / Administrative News

IAAF Tells Fox Business That No Edict On Legality Of Vaporflys Will Come Before The New Year “I don’t anticipate there being any news before our office closes for Christmas. Any announcement is likely to be in the New Year.”
Vote Now! What Is THE Best Diamond League Moment Ever The Diamond League has existed for 10 years. What was the greatest moment ever?
Russian HJ Star Maria Lasitskene Pens Op-Ed: “I Am A Russian World Champion And I Demand Answers” Where She Slams Russia “Why has barely anything changed? How come our athletes continue to systematically use banned substances, how come coaches linked to doping continue to work with impunity and how come our sporting officials continue to falsify official documents?”
Travis Tygart Says Russia Just “Gets Emboldened” By The Doping Sanctions
Australian Athletes Are Told They Will Be Stripped Of Their Medals In Tokyo If They Stage Protest On Medal Stand Against Doped-Up Russians
Vladimir Putin Signals Russia Will Appeal Against 4-Year WADA Ban
Brtish Olympic Association Formally Responds To The Recent Legal Challenge Brought Against The BOA’s Interpretation Of The IOC’s Rule 40 In The UK
Abu Dhabi Named World’s Leading Destination For Sports Tourism

International News

Whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov Wonders How Any Russian Athletes Can Prove They Are “Clean” After WADA Finds Crucial Data From The Moscow Laboratory Was Deleted And Manipulated The reality is no one can ever prove they are clean.
Pacemaker Reuben Kipyego Explains Why He Stayed In And Won $100,000 At Abu Dhabi Marathon In 2:04:40 “For me, the conditions were ideal and the course was beautiful.”
*Abu Dhabi Named World’s Leading Destination For Sports Tourism
A Profile Of Efrem Gidey, The Eritrean-Born Runner Who Won European Bronze For Ireland In The U20 Race
Sapporo Budgets $6.5 Million For Road Repairs For Olympic Marathon
Queensland Government Approves Australia’s 2032 Olympic Bid
Former Marathon World Record Holder Wilson Kipsang Survives Sunday Night Car Crash With Truck In Kenya The crash comes just months after David Rudisha also was involved in a serious crash.

Tokyo 2020 Marathon News

Japan Running News:Additional Cost Of Moving Olympic Marathons And Race Walks To Sapporo Expected To Total Almost $100 Million $100 million to put on 5 hours of races? That’s embarrassing and apparently that bloated doesn’t even include local expenses such as repaving the roads.
Tokyo 2020 Reveals Refund Policy For Men’s Marathon Tickets They’ll be offering a straight refund. There are no tickets for the men’s and women’s marathon in Sapporo as there is no fixed seating along the course.